Stray
by Walaz
Summary: Two different men from ShinRa’s different departments are working together on a mission. During work a new relationship is born. YAOI, Sephiroth x Reno
1. The Confrontation

**Disclaimer:** Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square Enix, and no financial profit is sought from this work.

**Warnings:** violence, blood, death and yaoi

**A/N:** This fic is about my favourite FFVII pairing: Sephiroth/Reno. I just love Reno to death and I absolutely worship Sephiroth, so I wrote this. Sadly, I've found only _ONE_ Seph/Reno fic, so it seems to be pretty rare pairing, which is funny, given that Reno has a respectable amount of fans, and (needless to say) Seph's fan base is frighteningly large! Not to mention that they look absolutely hot together… So why haven't anyone written about those two? But hopefully I'll someday find more fics about this pairing. If someone knows about a Sephiroth/Reno fic that's out there, could you please, please, pleaseinform me about it, and I'll make you my best friend! And just so you know, I might turn into one of those evil authors who won't update if they don't get reviews, so if you find the fic interesting, please review! And while you're reading, keep in mind that English isn't my native language.

That's all I guess. Enjoy!

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Chapter One: The Confrontation **

He was standing behind the door, Masamune raised, ready to charge in. He cast a quick glance towards his second-in-command next to him, silently asking if he was ready. The dark haired man gave him a curt nod. The General tightened his grip on his sword and kicked the door in.

The old hinges cracked broken and the metallic door fell heavily on the floor. Everything in the room froze for a moment as heads swung towards the doorway. Sephiroth ran into the dim room, Zack at his heels, and slashed the Masamune into the chest of the nearest man, making a deep cut and spilling blood about. The whole room exploded into motion, as the men reached for their weapons and lunged for the two intruders.

The silver haired SOLDIER easily dodged their bullets and blades and uncertain spells. He kept slashing and thrusting his sword into the men attacking him as he quickly moved deeper into the room. Then he realized that the battle was way too easy. The report had said that there would be about twenty men in here, but there were maybe even less than half of them in the room.

The Masamune clashed into an electrified nightstick and the man wielding it dodged his blade. A smirk made its way to Sephiroth's face. Finally a fight with some challenge, the others had been unbelievably easy to kill, he couldn't understand why the President had been worried about this group. The General turned his full attention towards the young man with the nightstick as he lifted his sword and attacked. The man blocked his attack with the nightstick and stepped aside. This scenario was repeated few times as the youth seemed to be able to block all the SOLDIER's attacks, although, there were two close calls. Before long, Sephiroth grew tired to the came and used more force as he swung Masamune towards the man. The youth was able to block the blade again, but the force of the attack sent him to the floor and his nightstick flew across the room.

The silver haired man stepped closer to the young man lying on the floor and lifted his sword, ready to get it stained with yet another man's blood.

"No, General! Don't!" He heard the man scream.

He hadn't heard many beg before, people in Wutai were too noble for that and after the war he had mainly fought against monsters, and the men he had fought against hadn't had the time to beg. Still, he recognized a beg when he heard one, and this was missing the despair, and during their short fight the man hadn't tried to attack him, he had only been dodging and blocking his blade, and the little electric shocks he had got were only because Masamune had led the electricity from the nightstick to him.

A choked cry informed him that Zack had just finished the last man standing. The silver haired SOLDIER lowered his sword and looked at the young man lying in front of him. He had short and spiky red hair, bluish-green eyes, and sunglasses buried in his messy hair.

"I have seen you somewhere before," Sephiroth said as he searched the youth's face from his memory, "In the ShinRa building?"

Noticing that he was still in one piece, the red haired man released a relieved breath. "Yeah, I'm one of the Turks," he said as he lifted his head from the floor and looked towards the General.

Well, that explained why the red haired man had reminded Sephiroth of dark blue. _A Turk? _The silver haired SOLDIER thought. Then he narrowed his eyes, knowing that look made everybody nervous, and the Turk was no exception.

"What is a Turk doing in a ShinRa resistance movement?" he asked with a chilling voice.

The Turk started rapidly waving his hands and shaking his head. "No, no, no! It's not what ya think. I'm workin' undercover."

Sephiroth heard Zack walking towards them. "What's up?" the dark haired man asked.

The General completely ignored his second-in-command's question as he quirked a silver eyebrow at the Turk. "So you are the 'reliable source' we got our information from?"

The red haired Turk lifted himself on his elbows and glared at the General under his bright red bangs. He didn't like the tone the silver haired SOLDIER had used, but he knew better than to start arguing with The Great Sephiroth. "Yes, sir. I am," he said in what he hoped was a polite and neutral tone. "Somethin' wrong with that?"

No, there wasn't. Sephiroth didn't care how and from whom he got his information, he just needed to know when and where and he would kill as many men or monsters or anything in between as needed, but that wasn't the young Turk's business.

"How long have you been a Turk?" the General asked as calmly as ever, ignoring the Turk's question. Given the Turks official job description, that being recruiting potential SOLDIER candidates, he recognized all the Turks at their appearance, especially the one with the long, black hair. But he hadn't seen this particular young man many times, which meant that he must be new to the job.

"'Bout six months," the red haired Turk said as he rose to a proper sitting position.

Six months? Was that with the training or without? Anyway, that wasn't such a long time, given that the second newest had been around for two years. It was hard to imagine that the President would put a rookie working undercover in an organization that tried to assassinate him.

The young man sitting on the floor seemed to get an idea about what the silver haired SOLDIER was thinking and without being asked the question he started talking. "The original plan was to put Tseng to the job since he would blend in better than any of us 'cause he's from Wutai. But there's the risk of people under the plate recognisin' him 'cause he's been a Turk for a long time and most of our work takes place here, the same thing went for Rude. So I ended up in here, not that I mind though."

Not only was the kid a fairly good fighter, he was pretty smart too… or he simply talked too much.

"How old are you?" was the General's next question.

The young Turk had been growing tired to the General's cold attitude and suspicions, and the age question was the last straw. Yes, he was young, but not too young for the General to doubt his talent. So he stood up and without thinking he started all but shout to Sephiroth.

"Seventeen. But what the hell does that matter, huh? I'm good in what I do! I have always been a fuckin' good fighter! And if the age is such an important matter, let me tell ya: in the slums one matures twice as quickly as one up the plate! And I've spent my whole life in the Sector six slums and I was a respected member in my gang, so my age shouldn't be a problem."

…Yes, he talked too much, and he was loud. And cocky.

"I never questioned your fighting talents. And there are boys your age in SOLDIER First Class too. He, for example," Sephiroth said coldly as he motioned towards Zack, who had been silently observing the conversation, with his head, "isn't a year older than you."

That was when the young Turk seemed to notice that he had been yelling to the man who, according to the stories, had almost single-handedly won an entire war. He lowered his head in shame and seemed to even blush a little.

Sensing the awkward tension between his commander and the Turk, Zack tried to lighten the mood. "Yeah, you must be a pretty good fighter since you didn't end up like them," he said pointing behind him, towards the bodies.

The Turk turned to look at the blood-soaked men lying on the floor, and the SOLDIERs noticed that his hair was longer than it looked.

"Aw, shit dude. They were my pals," the Turk said in a barely audible voice.

"What?" Zack asked as he leaned closer, trying to hear him better.

"That I truly must be or I had hell of lot luck with me," the red haired youth quickly said as he turned to face the two, knowing well what it would seem if he was mourning over the dead rebels.

Zack maybe hadn't heard the young man, but Sephiroth's hearing was better than any other's, so he had heard every word. And what the Turk had said was very suspicious considering the circumstances. He narrowed his eyes and fixed his cold, Mako eyes on the Turk.

"The report you wrote said that there would be 22 men in here," he spared a quick glance at the bodies, counting them, and then turned back at the Turk, "But there's nine."

The warning in the General's chilling eyes and voice wasn't lost to the Turk. He felt extremely uncomfortable under the hard gaze as Sephiroth's slit pupil fixed on him, demanding answer. The Turk had fucked up, and he felt humiliated because of it, and that was the exact reason he had stayed in the hideout waiting for the SOLDIERs to show up. He hoped that the General wouldn't be too mad at him for ruining the mission, but he assumed he was hoping too much, given that he had already yelled at the silver haired SOLDIER. The Turk's guess was that, even though he had survived the battle, he would still end up the Masamune sticking out of his chest, or have his head chopped off, or other things alike.

In reality, the mistake wasn't the Turk's fault, but he assumed the General wouldn't care. So he just explained what he could. "They were supposed to be here, but the meeting ended early, an' Eiji, the leader, went to buy weapons or other stuff. An' most of the men went to accompany him or to do other things. I tried to keep 'em here as long as possible, I swear! But it started to sound suspicious, so I just let them leave. An' I couldn't contact you an' tell there's been a change in plans. The company's very protective of you, General."

An unreadable emotion seemed to pass in the General's eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared, and the emotionless look was back before anyone had the time to speculate what they had seen in those emerald pools.

"Well, then there's nothing we can do about it. We should go back and come up with a new plan."

The Turk was left to stare at the General's back as the man walked towards the door. He couldn't believe he was till standing and breathing, he had been so sure that he would end up in the same lifeless pile with the rebels in the room. He had heard rumours about Sephiroth's cold, 'no nonsense' attitude, and given that the General was known to be an unstoppable killing machine, he had seriously expected to be punished for his screw up. But no, here he was, still in one piece and the General was already halfway through the door.

"Hey! What're you waiting for? A train?"

The Turk snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the doorway where the dark spiky haired SOLDIER was waiving at him.

"You'll be left behind. Sephiroth won't wait long even for me, let alone a stranger. C'mon!"

The Turk was still too surprised by the outcome of the day's events that he didn't even bother questioning the fact that he was being given a ride to the SinRa building. He just nodded and rushed to get his nightstick, then followed the dark haired man out of the room.

Once out of the building, the dark haired SOLDIER and the Turk introduced themselves, and then started talking about the difference between Turk training and SOLDIER training, as they tried to catch up with the General's long strides. Their conversation had turned into weapons by the time they reached the car waiting for them in the shadows of an alleyway. At some point during the ride they started talking about their favourite bars, and their babble went on and on all the way until they reached the ShinRa building.


	2. Talk

**Disclaimer:** Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square Enix and no financial profit is sought from this work.

**Warnings:** language, violence, blood, death and yaoi

**A/N;** Ha! I knew I couldn't be the only oddball in the world who likes this pairing. So here you are: a new chapter! And great thanks to all of my lovely reviewers!

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**Chapter Two: Talk**

Three days had passed since the SOLDIERs had met the red haired Turk, Reno, as he had said his name was, and during those short days Zack and the Turk had grown friends. They spent almost all of their free time hanging out together… in Sephiroth's condo in the ShinRa building.

The General obviously wasn't as thrilled about that outcome as the two, over talkative, young fighters were. During the time Sephiroth had been working together with Zack, the dark haired SOLDIER had created a habit of hanging around his commander and talking non-stop. Usually Zack would give up trying to make a conversation between them after Sephiroth ignored him long enough. But now, when the dark haired man had someone else to talk with, the babble went on and on.

Sephiroth, who had grown up alone, had grown accustomed to silence, and later welcomed it, and the silence almost always seemed to follow him everywhere he went… except if Zack was around. So, the endless noise irritated the silver haired man to no end. If he had assumed that Zack finding a new friend, would bring him some peace, he had peen painfully wrong. Those two spiky haired friends caused more noise than ten laughing Heideggers. The ride to the ShinRa building after the mission had been near torture to the silver haired man, and he hadn't even asked the Turk to join them. But he had taken the torture like a man, since the ride only lasted 25 minutes, but now the Turk's and Zack's babble continued for hours. And the thing that irritated the General the most was the fact that more and more often, he found himself listening to the conversations between the two.

Given that Sephiroth and Zack were both SOLDIERs and they worked on same missions, Zack had nothing to talk with his commander that Sephiroth wasn't already familiar with, the only times Sephiroth had actually been listening to Zack's stories were the times Zack had been talking about his hometown and the times before he joined SOLDIER. But now, there wasn't anything new the dark haired SOLDIER could talk about. But the Turk brought something new with him; he talked about things the General hadn't experienced. He talked about the things he did in his time off, about different places up the plate or in the slums he had been, sometimes he talked about his work (witch should actually have been classified). And try as he might, Sephiroth couldn't ignore the Turk's stories.

And he didn't like it.

"Don't you have your own places where to spend your time?" the General's voice gut through their conversation about last night's Chocobo race.

"Well… yeah, but your place is much cooler than ours," Zack said burying his hand in his neck and grinning widely.

Sephiroth's place definitely was cooler than any SOLDIER's, first of all, he was the only SOLDIER who had the honor to live in the ShinRa building and his condo was only one storey lower than the President's. The condo was on the Northern side of the building and the huge ceiling-to-floor windows revealed a fantastic view of the ocean in the far horizon. The living room with the adjoining kitchen was spacious and the white tiled bathroom could give any other a run for its money, even Sephiroth's office was attached to his condo. All of the General's furniture was no doubt very expensive and were kept in good order; the General had his own cleaner, who visited once a week, after all. Even though very flashy, the condo wasn't that big (considering the amount of gils in the man's pay check), at least to those few visiting it. The door to Sephiroth's bedroom was always closed and absolutely of-limits, so no one, except the General himself, knew how huge the mysterious room behind the door was.

"Besides, if we stayed in our places," Zack continued, motioning towards himself and Reno, "We couldn't keep you company."

"I hardly remember asking you to keep me company," Sephiroth said coldly from his position near the windows. "And more importantly, shouldn't he," Sephiroth's eyes slid from Zack to Reno, "be working?"

The red haired youth, who was lounging in Sephiroth's big leather couch looking like he owned it, turned around to get a better look of the silver haired General. "I am. We're workin' on shifts. Tseng 'n' Daren are out there right now along with the chicks, an' my 'n' Rude's shift starts tomorrow at eight AM. There's no point for all eight of us runnin' around and tirin' ourselves out in few days. Unlike ya SOLDIERs, we're just people."

Sephiroth turned his gaze from Reno to look at the dark ocean shimmering in the distance. "I just want you to find the rest of the resistance movement soon. I don't like it when things are left unfinished."

"No worries, General. We'll find 'em," Reno said, turning his back at Sephiroth.

"Say, Seph, we're planning to go out for a few drinks. Want to join us?" Zack asked as he rose from the other end of the couch.

Sephiroth had silently given Zack the permission to call him 'Seph' some time ago, so he ignored the nickname. But if his second-in-command dared to add the little 'y' in the end of it, making it sound that of a puppy, he would remind the man about certain things. "No," he said, not removing his eyes from the scenery before him.

"You sure? My treat," the dark haired man added.

Sephiroth turned around to look at Zack and spoke in a totally calm tone, even though what he said caused Zack to chuckle. "You're going _out_ for a few drinks? I don't care whose treat it is, I'm not going. Don't you remember what happened last time?"

Zack's face was twisted into something that one could see in someone's face that was in serious pain or was trying very hard not to laugh. "What? The Great Sephiroth is afraid of few fangirls?"

"Not afraid, just tired of them." Sephiroth replied, again in a calm voice, his face devoid of any emotion.

"Okay, do as you please," Zack said still grinning at the memory. He motioned Reno to get up, and after the Turk had somehow pulled himself off the couch from a very inhuman looking half-lying, half-sitting position they walked to the door.

"You sure you don't want to come?" Zack asked one last time as he opened the door. All he received for an answer was the shake of long, silver hair.

"Okay, then. Bye, Seph!"

"Later, General!"

And so the two left Sephiroth alone in the quiet of his condo.

* * *

There were much variety between different bars in Midgar, but the biggest difference was whether the bar was on the plate or in the slums. The ones up the plate had many different designs and drinks, for people to choose their favourite from. But they all had one rule: no drinks to minors. The ones in slums were different on that subject, the bar owner could sell a drink to a 14 year old pregnant girl if she had any gils in her pocket. 

But despite the strict rules, Zack and Reno were sitting in a cosy bar in the upper fourth sector. It was a miracle where the word "SOLDIER", especially if mentioned with a certain General's name, could get you into.

"So, what do you think? Will the rest of the rebel gang still try to wipe out the Pres?" Zack asked as he put down his beer.

"Yeah," Reno replied. "They won't give up easily, an' just like the General said, the incident just makes 'em plot an' do things more secretly an' effectively." He sighed and lifted his glass to his lips. "More work for us."

"Well, at least you're out of the gang now, so you won't be in the line. It must've been difficult working undercover in an organisation against the man who writes your pay check," Zack said leaning on the counter.

"Nah, not really. Quite many in the movement had a past similar to mine. I just needed to dig up my resentment towards ShinRa an' I blended in perfectly," Reno said somewhat sullenly, his eyes downcast.

"What do you mean?" Zack asked cautiously, not used to the Red head's tone.

Reno turned to look at his friend and frowned lightly. He didn't talk a lot about his past; in fact, aside from himself and his childhood friends there were about only a handful of people who knew what his life was like before becoming a Turk. He didn't know if it was the beer or the fact that the dark haired SOLDIER was just so damn nice and easily approachable, but he started talking:

"Ya know that the movement was founded by some Wutaiese immigrants pissed of by the war, so most of the members were, or are, Wutaiese. But during time more and more Midgar residents joined it… People like me whose life had been fucked up 'cause of ShinRa," he took a long gulp of his beer and continued: "I was born and raised in the slums of the sixth, typical slum life: poor jobs, little money, crappy house… But when I turned six my old man got a job from a Mako reactor, we were so excited; maybe we could've raised enough money to move on the plate. But then, one day there was an accident, somethin' about some parts blowin' up. My dad was one of the few victims killed in the accident, 'cause he'd to do the most dangerous jobs the slum people did. So at the age of seven I 'came the head of my family, doin' all kinds of dirty jobs to bring food to the table. My mom did the best she could, but ever since givin' birth to my little sister she had been kinda sick… and then she died, along with my sis, when bunch o' monsters attacked 'em while I was workin'…"

Reno's usually so bright eyes were haunted with years of pain, quilt and anger and the grip he had on his beer was almost enough to break the glass. "I swore to destroy the bastards of ShinRa-" he snorted, "but instead I 'came one of 'em…" He drowned down the last of his beer and motioned the bartender to give him another. "When I got offered the job of a Turk, I was ready to beat the livin' shit out of Tseng. But instead I agreed, thinkin' that ShinRa'd give me the life it once took away from me. So I forgot all 'bout my family… an' then I went undercover in the organisation. I really could sympathise with 'em and they 'came my friends… An' I had to betray 'em…"

The bartender gave Reno his beer and he took a gulp of it. "Some say it needs a certain kinda cruelness to become a Turk… Well, I certainly think that I have it," he said with an unamused laugh.

For a moment they sat in silence as Zack digested what he had just heard. Well that certainly was a lot more difficult life than his childhood in a boring, little country town had been.

"Well, it's not like you had any choice," Zack finally said, "With the undercover job I mean. Once you sign that paper ShinRa owns you, and there's no room for argue. Besides, I don't think you're cruel; you just did what you had to do to survive. And I'm sure your parents would appreciate it too, you did get out of the slums after all, and I think they'd be happy about it," he said softly, placing a hand on Reno's shoulder.

"Yeah… Guess you're right," the red head said and the suffering look was suddenly gone and his usual cheerfulness was back when he asked: "So, what happened 'last time'?"

Reno laughed at Zack's surprised and lost look and added: "Sephiroth an' the fangirls?"

The same twisted grin from earlier that day spread on the dark haired SOLDIER's face. "Oh nothing special, he just had hell of a difficult time trying to chase them away."

Reno immediately got a funny picture in his head of Sephiroth surrounded by tons of women, trying to break free from their grasp. He hid his evil grin behind his glass as took a gulp.

"Don't understand why he has so many fans though. Yeah, he's a great fighter an' all that but the man's just so damn cold 'n' scary," the Turk muttered when he put down his glass. Reno had heard many executives and other ShinRa people who had met the General saying that they had been disappointed in the man's attitude, so he hadn't been expecting hugs and kisses from the man but still…

"But you seem pretty immune to his coldness considering the way you act around him," Zack said as he picked up his once forgotten beer.

"I'm a Turk, I'm trained to deal with difficult things an' not show my fear," Reno replied grinning.

"So you _are_ afraid of him," Zack said and before Reno could argue with that accusation the SOLDIER continued: "And you haven't even seen the ultimate 'Sephiroth-death-glare'. I swear he killed at least half of the Wutaiese in the war with that look."

"Have ya seen it?"

"He gave it to me once," Zack said and seemed to shudder, "And I tell you: that thing's damn lethal! He only uses it when he's really pissed though."

"What did ya do to earn it?" Reno asked lifting his elbows on the counter and resting his chin in his hands.

"I tried to make him loosen up and tell me something about himself, so I made a joke about him," Zack said, rubbing the back of his neck, seemingly uncomfortable with the memory.

Reno stared his friend for a while until he snorted. "Getting' all worked out over a simple joke… Makes me wonder how long the stick in his ass is."

Zack let out a small, almost sad laugh. "Seph's really not a bad person; he's just really private… Hell, I don't even know how old the guy is. I've learned more about you in these three days than about him in a year and-" the dark haired man stopped while counting in his head "-nine months."

"Twenty-one months?" Reno asked, completing a little count of his own "You were in the war?"

"Only the last month, but that was more than enough. Luckily I didn't make it to First Class any sooner," Zack answered and continued after drinking the last of his beer: "That's where I met Sephiroth for the first time. I fought quite close to him in the war, and when we returned to Midgar I was being made his second-in-command… One could say I'm the best SOLDIER there is after him," he said, pointing his thumb at his chest and grinning widely without a trace of cockiness.

"I feel kinda sorry for you, ya know?" Reno said, pointing at the SOLDIER with his almost empty beer glass "First the hell of the war, then the hell of The Great Sephiroth."

Zack smirked at his friend as Reno drank the last of his beer and for a few seconds Zack wondered just how quick a drinker the red head was, given that it wasn't long ago the Turk had ordered that 'new' glass that was now sitting empty on the counter.

"Like I said, Seph's not a bad person. From what I've gathered, he just doesn't know how to interact with people. He knows how to be polite when needed and stuff like that, but in his private life, or in the lack of it, I'd be temped to say that he's emotionally dead… or not." Zack grumbled and pulled a hand though his spiky hair, "Hell, that man's a total mystery; I've been trying to break him out of his shell for a long, long time but…"

"So that's why we're always hanging out in his place 'keeping him company'?" Reno said in sudden realization.

Zack looked at his friend feeling a little surprised. "Is it that obvious?"

Reno straightened his back, trying to make himself look bigger. "To me it is now, but to him…probably not. I mean, how that iceman could notice if someone tried to be nice to him since he doesn't know how to be nice."

Zack sighed in relief after feeling convinced enough that his commander didn't see through his plan. Seeing his friend's relieved expression, Reno's face twisted into a cruel smirk as he got an idea. He leaned close to the SOLDIER, wrapping a hand over his shoulders.

"Ya know, I'm startin' to think there's somethin' more than his friendship you want from the General," the red head whispered with a grin.

"Huh?" Zack was completely confused for a while until he got it "WHAT?"

Reno burst out into a very loud laugh and everyone in the bar turned to look at them. Zack felt his cheeks warming and assumed their colour was very close to his laughing friend's hair. The SOLDIER felt a very strong urge to whack his friend upside the head, and that he did.

"Idiot! I have a girlfriend."

"Yeah, I know," Reno managed to say between sharp intakes of breath as he tried to subdue his laughter. "Ya should've seen yer face," And then he was laughing again.

Zack turned away from his friend and glared his empty glass for a while, waiting for Reno to calm down. Then the idea struck him. _'Maybe if Seph really had someone he cared about, maybe he would stop being so indifferent and cold towards things…But like he could ever fall in love…'_

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**A/N: **About the Turks; in Last Order OAV, there are nine Turks and for this fic I decided to go with that number, but there's next to no information given about them in the anime, not even names, so I searched the net for information about Before Crisis, but turns out that the new characters don't have official names, so I took the privilege to name one of them (Can you guess witch one of them I named 'Daren'?) During my research, I found out that the storyline of BC takes place about the same time with this story, and the resistance movement the characters are after in this fic is not AVALANCHE. So if you are one of the lucky ones who get to play BC… then consider this AU… Oh, and I said that there'll be nine Turks in the fic, but Reno said: "There's no point for all eight of us runnin' around and tirin' ourselves out in few days." that's because in LO, Reno called one of the other Turks a 'newcomer' when they were ordered to capture Zack and Cloud after they escaped from Nibelheim, and this story takes place before the events of Nibelheim, so there are eight Turks now... And after all this research and finishing the chapter I realized that I had written the first chap as if there were only three Turks… /sigh/ Oh, well… I don't care… 

I also have no idea when the Wutai war took place…

I'm a terrible author…

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.


	3. Sparring

**Disclaimer:** Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square Enix and no financial profit is sought from this work.

**Warnings:** language, violence, blood, death and yaoi

* * *

**Chapter Three: Sparring**

"-- the search has been completed in the slums of the third sector as well, and we weren't able to locate any trace of the resistance movement, thus we're certain that their hideout isn't located there either," the Wutaiese Turk finished his oral report and standing still, hands clasped behind his back, he held the eye contact with the General sitting behind his massive desk, waiting for dismissal or questions.

After being in the dark for six days, Sephiroth had requested the President to keep him posted on the resistance movement case. At firs, he had felt futile requesting such a thing, since he had one of the Turks wearing a hole on his couch, but every time he asked Reno about the proceedings of the case the redhead's answers were along the lines of "nothing really" or "it's confidential and you're not a Turk". Sephiroth knew that because he had a higher rank than the Turk, the stubborn youth was obliged to answer all his questions, but he didn't bother reminding Reno about that, knowing that there were other Turks he preferred listening the report from.

So after a brief talk with the President, Sephiroth had one of the Turks (preferably and most likely Tseng) delivering him an oral report every other day, this being the first one of them. And it appeared that he hadn't learned anything new from Tseng that he hadn't already pried out of Reno.

It had been a week since the SOLDIERs had raided the resistance movement's hideout in the slums of sector two. After that, the Turks had searched for the rest of the movement from sector one to three, and no doubt searched them well, a hasty job wasn't something the Turks would do, and yet, they hadn't found anything. Sephiroth knew that moving on the plate was out of question, if Reno's report had been accurate there were still 13 people in the movement, and paying them all on the plate was highly unlikely, plus the security was stricter on the upper sectors, if there was an organisation on the plate that planned the assassination of the President, they'd have heard of it. So, the only possible place for the resistance movement's hideout was on some of the remaining sectors under the plate, and the only way to find out where, was to search the rest of them, so keeping Tseng in his office longer than it was necessary was a waste of time.

"Thank you. You're dismissed," Sephiroth said, leaning back on his big leather chair.

The dark haired Turk bowed his head, turned around and started walking towards the door. When Tseng reached the door he almost bumped against another blue clad fighter as he walked into the room with Zack.

Sephiroth had to fight back not to let out an exasperated sigh at the sight of the two men who had became more like his roommates than his co-workers. Sephiroth's secretary had learned long ago that announcing Zack's arrival to the General wasn't necessary, and let him walk into his office without a blink, and apparently Zack bringing someone with him wasn't something the silver haired man needed to know about either.

Reno stayed in the doorway, changing few words with Tseng, about work most likely. But Zack walked straight in and seated on the edge of his commander's desk. "Good afternoon, Seph," he said cheerfully "Did you get all the information you wanted?" he continued, inclining his head towards the two Turks.

"All there's to know. But whether that is what I wanted to know is a different thing entirely," Sephiroth replied, his tone and expression even.

Both SOLDIERs heard the door slid shut in Tseng's wake, but the metallic hiss was mostly lost under an odd noise Reno let out of his throat as he stretched his arms towards the ceiling. "Well, as far as I'm concerned the day's wrapped," he said while walking towards Sephiroth's desk, and taking an example from his friend, sat on it. "So what now?"

"Don't know," Zack said and shrugged. "How's work? Did you find anything?" Zack offered a small-talkish start for a conversation, which made Sephiroth lean deeper in his chair, as if trying to get as far away as possible from the two and their talk, but he had to admit that he would be more than happy to hear a proper answer for the question.

"Nothing much," the redhead said, sounding bored in every sense of the word.

Sephiroth's lips twitched upwards into a sneer. Had he had someone to bet with on the Turk's answer he would be a millionaire. But it was nice to notice that the unveiling answers weren't directed only at him; not even his friend (and Zack was by far one of the friendliest people Sephiroth had ever met) could make him talk. Or there really was nothing to talk about, in which case, Sephiroth could totally sympathise with the Turk's boredom.

"Well, if you're up to it, we could go sparring," Zack said a challenging gleam in his dark blue eyes that the General knew well, and he also knew that if Reno didn't watch it, he was going to be mending his bruises for the rest of the day.

But like the SOLDIERs had learned the day they met the young Turk, he didn't lack confidence. "Sounds good to me," Reno said a lopsided grin on his face, and then his grin and voice turned threatening and no one in the office could argue why this youth had been made into a Turk "I'm gonna kick your ass," Reno exclaimed before jumping off the desk.

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that Turkey," Zack said, trying to mirror his friends expression, but didn't manage to make it as sinister. Apparently Zack didn't believe in threats, then again, he didn't have to squeeze information from people before cutting them in half, so he didn't have the practise Reno had. "You coming?" Zack asked over his shoulder looking at Sephiroth.

"No, thank you," the silver haired man answered as nonchalantly as ever.

Zach sighed, throwing his hands in the air in surrender. "Of course you won't," _'you haven't participated in anything of the things we offer,' _"Can we still use your hall?" the dark haired man asked in what was his version of the puppy-eyes, and the look didn't fit in that muscular SOLDIER body at all.

Sephiroth wanted to groan at the look, but suppressed the urge and dug into one of his desk drawers. Just getting rid of that look was worth the use of his personal training hall. After finding his spare key card he threw it to Zack. "Don't make a mess."

"Thanks, Seph. And we won't," Zack said and turned around, walking towards the door where Reno was already waiting.

The comment was obviously meant to be heard only by Reno, but Sephiroth's sensitive ears picked it up as Zack leaned close to his friend mumbling to him: "I knew that would work, Aeris can't resist my puppy-eyes either. She says I'm too cute to be denied anything."

Sephiroth vaguely remembered Zack mentioning something about a girlfriend a couple of months back, so he expected that Aeris was her name, and if so, he had been just compared to some teenaged girl. But Sephiroth let it slip; besides, the door had already closed after Zack and Reno, leaving him alone in his office.

Sephiroth's sharp eyes swept over his desk: it was clean of any paperwork, and since his work with the resistance movement wasn't finished yet, there'd be no other missions for him, so he didn't even bother checking his mail. He turned his head slightly to the left and eyed the white door that led to his condo; there was nothing to do there either.

Defeated, the SOLDIER threw his head back and stared at the ceiling. Why had he turned down the invitation to spar? As much as he disliked most of the pastimes Zack offered, he had never before said no to sparring. When the question had come, Sephiroth had mouthed the answer before he had even thought about it. The answer had been "no" because the Turk was there, that was clear. At the moment the General had told himself that it was because it would be pointless to go spar with an odd number of people. But that wasn't the whole truth, because he could easily fight against two men at the same time, he had done that in the war more than often. The real reason was that he simply didn't want to be near Reno. Sephiroth groaned, he didn't like the idea that someone would have such a hold on him that it prevented him from doing things the way he wanted.

Then deciding that the best way to prove that there was no hold was to go sparring, he got up from his desk and walked out of the office to his condo to retrieve Masamune. Then he left his living quarters through the office and told his secretary that if somebody needed him he would be in the training hall. Sephiroth walked straight down the hall to the elevator and pushed the underground (or in this case, the under plate) floor button and the glass elevator started descending down.

After coming back from the Wutai War as a victorious General and getting his own condo in the ShinRa building, the President had been generous enough to remodel half of the weapons testing area into Sephiroth's personal training hall, so that he didn't have to go to the SOLDIER training centre if he wanted to get some exercise. Other people saw it as well-earned reward, but to Sephiroth it was something completely different.

When he had first met Reno, the Turk had said that the ShinRa was very protective of him. Protective indeed… so protective that they put everything he needed in the same building he was living in, or made someone else get it for him, so he didn't have to leave anywhere even to complete his work (not counting the missions) or go grocery shopping. Once again, someone else would see it as luxury above all, but Sephiroth saw it as a limitation to his freedom, if he ever had such a thing. He had never completely broken out of his little cell in the lab; even now the ShinRa still had him on a leash.

On top of all that, Sephiroth was bored out of his mind. Having spent the first twelve years of his life in the lab, then after three years of training made it to SOLDIER 1st class, he was sent to fight against Wutai in the war, so he had spent his whole life whether studying, training or fighting, and thus he felt extremely bored during peace time. Usually, he would fight against the boredom by going to the plains around Midgar and kill some monsters, but since he was in the middle of a mission and could be needed at any time, he wasn't permitted to do so.

At last the elevator came to halt and the doors opened to reveal a long corridor that had been built to divide the space into the weapons testing area and Sephiroth's training hall. Sephiroth stepped out of the elevator and walked along the corridor until he reached the door that led to his training hall. He pulled his key card through the little slot next to the door and the door slid open.

The SOLDIER was immediately greeted by the familiar sound of metal clashing together, feet stomping against the floor and the small shouts that escaped from Zack and Reno as they hurled their weapons at each other. They both were so enclosed in their little fight that they hadn't even noticed Sephiroth entering the training hall.

The silver haired man stayed next to the door, leaning on the wall and observed the fight between the two. _'Zack is holding back,'_ he thought, _'but that could be expected, I'm holding back when I'm sparring with him. If I didn't, the fight would be over before it even started. Same situation in here; although a relatively good fighter, Reno is no mach for Zack.'_ Sephiroth's gaze fixed on Reno, he watched the Turk's every move closely: the way he dodged Zack's attacks, how and when he attacked and the way he carried himself during the fight. _'His moves are a bit raw, but he has potential… self-learned, survival-based fighting before becoming a Turk, I assume. With more training he'll become a great fighter.' _

That was when Zack seemed to notice him from the corner of his eye. The SOLDIER turned his head around in Sephiroth's direction. "Hey, Seph! You deci- Ow!" Zack's greeting was cut out short when Reno hit his friend straight on his right wrist with his nightstick, and even from the other side of the hall, Sephiroth could see the electricity running up and down his arm.

"You bastard," Zack snapped at Reno, a trace of a whine in his irritated voice, and rubbed his offended arm, "Why the hell did you do that?"

"Are we sparrin' or what?" Reno said defensively, slightly taken aback by Zack's tone.

"Yeah, but I was talking to Seph in case you didn't notice!" Zack bellowed, pointing a finger towards the man next to the door.

"So? In a real battle the opponent doesn't care if you're talkin' to the freakin' Ancients. Take the chance when ya get it. Or aren't ya SOLDIERs even bein' taught _real_ battle skills in the trainin'?" the redhead replied, eyeing his friend a cocky smile on his face.

"Yes, we are," Zack said evenly and dropped Buster Sword to the floor. "And I'm taking it." Then the SOLDIER hurled himself on Reno and knocked him to the floor. Seconds later the two youths were enclosed in a friendly wrestling match that one could see in elementary school yard. The Turk got over the surprise of being knocked down quickly and for a while it seemed that he was winning, until Zack rolled him over.

Sephiroth shook his head in disbelief at the two; they just couldn't act like normal people, could they? The silver haired man pushed himself off the wall and started walking towards the two fools rolling about on the floor.

"Need I remind you that you're supposed to be a part of the two most deadly fighting forces on the whole planet, so start acting like it," Sephiroth said when he reached the two spiky haired men.

Although The General didn't sound angry, just his normal nonchalant self, it made both of the amateur wrestlers stop their mach and look up at him. And what a sight did they make: Zack was lying on top of Reno, his dark hair a mess (if it even could be messier than it usually was) and he had Reno's left arm pinned tightly to the floor next to the redhead's torso, the Turk himself was sprawled under the SOLDIER, his white dress shirt hanging almost open except for two buttons over his belly, his ever present sunglasses had fallen off his head a long time ago.

"It's good to train without weapons once in a while, Seph," Zack said cheerfully, trying to explain his playful behaviour.

"I doubt that is the correct way to do so," the silver haired man deadpanned.

"I'm improvising," Zack said as he pushed himself off the floor, and Reno, "So, you decided to come anyway?"

"I had nothing else to do," Sephiroth said and turned to look at the abandoned Buster Sword lying on the floor. But he soon lifted his gaze to Reno, who also had risen from the floor, when he heard him talking.

"Ya sure have a nice little place down here," Reno said while tightening his red ponytail that had loosened during his wrestling with Zack, "Hope ya make good use of it, not lettin' yourself get rusty an' stuff like that."

A corner of Sephiroth's mouth twitched up at the comment, it wasn't often he heard that. In fact, this was the firs time, and even though the comment was obviously at least half a joke, he wanted to show Reno something. Sephiroth bent down and picked up Reno's nightstick that happened to be lying next to his feet. He tossed it to the Turk, and then he reached behind his back and slowly unsheathed Masamune. "Lets see how rusted I am," he said lowly and dangerously, half a smile ghosting his lips.

Zack turned to look at Reno, wondering how he would react. Zack had faced his commander in that state of mind a few times, and his ego as a good fighter had been shattered in mere minutes. The redhead seemed to consider the request for a while, most likely remembering his first meeting with Sephiroth. But soon his confident smirk made its way to Reno's face. "Bring if on," he said, lifting his nightstick in the air, getting ready for his new sparring partner.

Sephiroth was already standing concentrated, Masamune outstretched and ready. Then he was moving so fast that Reno didn't even see it coming and swung his sword at the Turk with a force that was enough to cut a Weapon in half. The attack hit Reno's nightstick (a perfect hit, just how it was planned) and sent it flying out of its wielder's grasp. And before the Turk had a chance to react, Sephiroth struck his right elbow squarely at Reno's chin, and the youth fell to the floor defeated.

For a while Reno just stayed lying on the floor, groaning in pain and glaring up at Sephiroth, who had walked next to Reno and placed his sword at the redhead's throat. "How?" he finally managed to say, looking and sounding surprised, "Ya weren't _that_ good before."

"When I killed the firs man in the hideout, I could tell that the fight wouldn't need much effort from me. No use to use all my strength when I can manage with less. You might have been better than the others in the resistance movement, but you're nowhere near SOLDIER 1st class level," Sephiroth said coldly and removed Masamune from Reno's throat and sheathed it.

When the cold, threatening blade was gone, Reno rose to sit up on the floor. He was still glaring at Sephiroth, now even more furiously than before, but the General could see a tingle of embarrassment in his eyes.

"But you aren't completely useless either. I'm sure that soon you'll become a really good fighter," Sephiroth continued, still with the same cold tone.

The silent fury disappeared from Reno's eyes as his eyebrows lifted towards his hairline and his jaw dropped. The utterly surprised look amused Sephiroth somewhat. He didn't know why, but most people tended to react the exact same way when first being criticised and later praised by him. That didn't make any sense to him. Were they expecting that he would leave the other unsaid? That would be stupid, he always only said the truth, nothing more and nothing less, and the truth should be voiced if something could be made out of it.

"Now, if you two will spar with me," Sephiroth said looking from Reno to Zack, "I'll try to make it last."

The light in the training hall stayed on for hours.

* * *

**A/N: **Heh, "Zack was lying on top of Reno, -- the Turk himself was sprawled under the SOLDIER, his white dress shirt hanging almost open except for two buttons over his belly --" And since they had peen sparring before, they must have been sweaty and panting… I so want to get to the yaoi part! 

And thanks again to each and every one of my reviewers, especially to those who pointed out things about the Wutai War or informed me about other Sep/Reno fics, I really appreciate it.

And sorry if there are mistakes in the fic, I'm trying my best but grammar still refuses be my friend…


	4. Bonding

**Disclaimer:** Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square Enix and no financial profit is sought from this work.

**Warnings:** language, violence, blood, death and yaoi

* * *

**Chapter Four: Bonding**

Reno just couldn't understand why someone would want to built a building that was over ten storeys high. Yes, he had to admit that after living in what was more of a tin and less of a house for sixteen years, he was more than exited to be able to walk through the ShinRa building's main entrance and into the 37th floor where the Turks' lounge was. But the excitement lost its hold one day on his second month as a Turk when for some weird reason all of the elevators in the whole damn building were out of order. He had to _walk_ the fucking _stairs_ all the way to the _37th floor. _When he finally had made it to the lounge he had promised himself that, even if the President docked his pay, the next time the elevators would be out of order he would go home. And just to make the day even worse, after he had walked up all those stairs he had been told that there was no work for them for the day. Not that after that kind of workout he would have wanted to go beat somebody lifeless, he had been pissed because instead of climbing an inhumane amount of stinking stairs for nothing he could have stayed home.

But that was what it was like being a Turk. If the people behaved themselves (from the President's point of view) there was no work for the Turks, and when they had to work, they would work when and where the President told them. A bit like now. There were Turks out there at all times looking for the rest of the resistance movement. But damn, it was starting to get boring; not a trace of them in a week. But hey, Midgar was a big city… But even though it was boring to look for something and not finding it, Reno though that it was better that way, because when they really will find them, it'll be the end of them.

'_And I don't want that. It'd be pretty shitty to kill my friends…' _Reno violently shook his head to get rid of those thoughts, _'I though I was over that.'_

Reno lifted his gaze to the red numbers over the elevator door, the number just changed from forty to forty-one. _'Even with the elevators working it takes forever to get up,'_ he snickered, _'Another reason why high buildings don't make sense.'_

Actually it only took about three minutes to get to the 69th floor, but for Reno that was too much. It was funny that even though the redhead had a tendency for laziness, he could still get bored very easily. And when he got bored he started to amuse himself with anything possible, and in the small, closed space of the elevator his only options were his thoughts.

'_I'd like to see Sephiroth climbing all the stairs to his office, it'd be almost twice the amount I had to walk…'_ the Turk thought smirking, _'But I bet the bastard wouldn't even get out of breath. I swear that man can't be human!'_

Reno's thoughts drifted back to yesterday and into the training hall. Being a part of the generation that had spent their adolescence during the war, Reno had heard lots of stories about Sephiroth and his incredible strength. But he had always though that the stories were exaggerated; there just was no way someone could be _that_ strong. But yesterday he had been proved wrong.

Ever since winning those two men in a fight when he was fourteen he had considered himself a good fighter. But that illusion had been destroyed yesterday in three seconds and two simple moves. He had never before in his life felt that humiliated. But the more he thought about it the less humiliated he felt and could do nothing but be at awe at the General's strength.

The elevator dinged, signalling that it had arrived its appointed floor. Reno pushed himself off the glass wall and walked out of the elevator, the doors closing behind him. Walking along the corridor the redhead let his thoughts still linger in the events of yesterday's sparring.

Sephiroth really was strong and skilled. Reno had never before seen someone move with such grace and efficiency before. The man didn't make any unnecessary moves, and he blocked and dodged every attack from him and Zack (even when they attacked at the same time) with very little effort. Sephiroth's own attacks were quick and powerful and he kept both him and Zack at their toes the whole time. Yet a very, very powerful man, Sephiroth didn't cross the limit even once during the sparring, he seemed to know how much his sparring partners could take and he didn't cross the line to make them lose, and thus the fight continued for hours. And when they finally decided to call it quits, the man hadn't even broken a sweat, while someone could smell Reno and Zack from miles away. Reno couldn't believe how the silver haired SOLDIER could make fighting look so… well, beautiful, there really was no other word for it.

And during the sparring Reno had learned something new from Sephiroth's attitude as well as his strength. When the General had knocked him down and called him a poor fighter (well, the man hadn't used those exact words, but combined with his tone he might as well have said so) Reno had been furious and ready to defend his honor with any way possible. Whether that way would've been killing the man with his bare hands (yes, it was impossible and Reno knew it) or shouting from the top of his lungs like in the hideout, he would have done it. But he hadn't needed to do so, because Sephiroth had done it for him by praising him. That had been weird as hell, because since meeting him, Reno had thought that the SOLDIER was just a mean and cold bitch, and then he went and said something nice! Maybe, like Zack said, Sephiroth wasn't a bad person… But to Reno he still looked more cold than nice.

'_Well, maybe I'll find out something new today…'_ Reno thought and stopped in front of the door that led to Sephiroth's condo. He ringed the doorbell and waited.

When the door opened Reno found himself staring at two strong collarbones and a throat surrounded with silver hair. The Turk lifted his gaze up to Sephiroth's emerald eyes and flashed the man his trade-mark grin. "Hello, General. Can I come in?" he asked and peeked into the condo behind Sephiroth.

The silver haired SOLDIER just stared at Reno for a few seconds as if questioning his presence, then he stepped out of the doorway and let redhead walk in and shut the door. "What do you want?" Sephiroth asked in his usual cold tone and watched after the Turk who was heading towards his usual place at the couch.

"What do ya mean 'what do I want'?" Reno asked turning to look at Sephiroth, "I came to-" the Turk cut himself off, glancing around the living room. "Zack's not here yet?" he asked, stating the obvious, since Zack was nowhere to be seen.

"No. He is training with that friend of his."

"Oh, that's right!" Reno said slapping his hand at his forehead, "He's with Cloud today."

Reno recalled Zack mentioning about it yesterday after the sparring when they were heading to their places, but at the time Reno had been too tired or dazed to actually remember it. And now he was here under the cold gaze of Sephiroth, and Zack was somewhere training with that SOLDIER wannabe.

"Any idea when he'll be done?" Reno asked Sephiroth who hadn't moved from the door.

"It can easily take two hours," Sephiroth said, recalling previous times Zack had been training the cadet.

Well, that sucked. Reno had to be at the sector four slums after about four hours, and he had already came all the way to the ShinRa building from his apartment from sector one, and he most definitely was _not_ going to go back home and then, after few hours, to the slums of fourth that was almost on the other side of the city, when he already was in the middle of the city and thus the way to sector four was shorter.

These thoughts in mind Reno asked Sephiroth: "Mind if I stay here waitin' for him?"

Sephiroth seemed to consider the request for a while, his eyes narrowing at the Turk while he thought about the possible outcomes if he let the redhead stay.

"I don't mind," the silver haired man said at last, "Just stay out of the way," he added and walked past Reno, took a book that was left open from the small coffee table and sat on a leather armchair next to the couch.

Reno dropped himself on the couch and let his eyes travel around the spacious living room until they settled on Sephiroth sitting in his chair, reading the book. This was the first time Reno was alone with the General, and stuck with him for two hours as it seemed. _'Not a big deal,'_ the redhead thought, in the past week he had spent longer times in the SOLDIER's presence. But those times Zack was there, and for the most of the time Sephiroth just sat somewhere doing his best to ignore them, and when he was dragged into a conversation it died quickly, which was why Reno often forgot that the man was in the room.

But now, when Zack wasn't there drawing his attention, the silver haired SOLDIER's presence in the room was unmistakable. For some reason just the man's looks forced Reno's eyes on him. Sephiroth was wearing his usual leather outfit, with the coat and all, but the gloves and shoulder plates were gone, obviously it was more comfortable that way. His long hair cascaded down his leather clad body and some strands pooled over the arm of the chair. His eyes skimmed along the book that he held in his hands, the odd slit pupil in the middle of Mako greenery concentrating on every word.

"Do I have something on my face?" Came a deep voice that no doubt belonged to Sephiroth, but he didn't lift is gaze from the book.

Reno was slightly taken aback by the fact that Sephiroth had noticed him staring, when he hadn't noticed it himself. But he got over it quickly and even managed to fight back the slight embarrassed blush. "Yeah, you've two eyes, a nose, lips, eyebrows…" Reno started listing with a grin on his face.

"Very funny," Sephiroth replied, but his tone told Reno that it was anything but funny.

Reno shut his mouth and a long silence set above them, the only sound being the pages of the book rustling when they were turned. Once again getting bored, Reno tried to come up with something to keep himself amused, for a while he considered turning on the TV, but he knew that afternoon shows were either boring stuff for kids or ridiculous soap operas for house wives. So, even though Sephiroth had told him to stay out of the way, he decided to open his mouth because sitting quiet was just something that was against Reno's nature (and Sephiroth hadn't forbidden him from talking).

"What're ya readin'?" Reno asked, trying to see the cover of the book that was resting in Sephiroth's hands.

"Astronomy," the man answered.

"Astronomy?" Reno repeated.

"Astronomy."

"Astronomy, as in the stars an' stuff?"

"Yes," Sephiroth answered with a bored voice and for the first time lifted his gaze from the pages. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"Oh, nothin'," Reno said and shrugged, "Just that one can't really see stars in Midgar 'cause the Mako glow an' all," he continued, looking out of the window, where the sky still had a faint green hue even though the whole city was bathed in daylight.

"All the more reason to read about them," Sephiroth said and turned back to the book.

A sensible logic… of sorts. Reno had always thought that if he couldn't see something and it had nothing to do with him, he didn't need to know about it. But apparently that wasn't how Sephiroth lived his life.

Feeling the conversation about astronomy dying, Reno decided to try something else. "Well, now that ya aren't here all by yourself, how about we do somethin' that we both can participate in?" Reno asked, eyeing Sephiroth with challenging eyes.

"You want to go sparring again?" Sephiroth asked in mild disbelief.

"Naw. I've an evenin' shift. Gotta save my strength," Reno said, waiving a hand at the question. The work part was true, but not the whole truth; his muscles were still a bit stiff from yesterday, and he rather not go through the same workout again. _'But I'll be damned before I let you know it,'_ Reno thought, but judging by the SOLDIER's tone he already knew.

"How 'bout we play a round of poker?" Reno asked a mischievous grin on his face.

"Alright, sounds good to me," Sephiroth said, closed his book and placed it back on the table. "What are the rules?"

For a second time in two days Reno felt his eyebrows lift towards his hairline and his jaw drop at Sephiroth's words. "You've never played poker before?" he asked in utter disbelief, "But that's the number one pastime activity in SOLDIER trainin' centre."

"I didn't do much socializing in the training," Sephiroth said nonchalantly, but someone who was familiar with the General could have noticed the irritated note in the man's voice.

'_I bet you didn't,'_ was what Reno wanted to say, and almost did, but managed to bite it back at the last second.

"It's okay, I'll explain the rules to you," Reno said, reaching inside his suit jacket and pulled out a deck of cards. Reno watched Sephiroth's reaction carefully; he had always liked to see the surprised look on people's faces when they found out that Reno walked around a deck of cards in his pocket. The redhead remembered the first time Rude found out, even though Rude was one of the most stone faced people he knew Reno had had the pleasure to see his eyebrows arc up questionably behind his shades. But Sephiroth did nothing, whether the SOLDIER saw nothing weird in men who carried cards with them or he simply was even better at hiding his emotions than Rude was. Reno guessed it was the later.

The Turk shuffled the cards and started dealing them while explaining Sephiroth how to play.

* * *

An hour and a half and numerous rounds later a flush of diamonds was lying on the table in front of Sephiroth and a full house, aces over tens, in front of Reno who was grinning like a maniac. 

"Well played for a rookie, but you're nowhere near my skill in this," the Turk said, gathering the cards, "You're lucky we aren't playin' for money, 'cause if we were I'd have wiped every gil out of ya."

"If we were playing for money, I wouldn't let you cheat," Sephiroth said calmly, leaning back in his chair.

"Wha-?" Reno's hands froze in the middle of shuffling the cards as he stared at Sephiroth with wide eyes. "I'm not cheating!" he bellowed.

"I have seen you changing the cards in your hands with the ones you keep in your sleeve," Sephiroth said, sliding his gaze from Reno's face to his left hand.

'_Impossible,' _Reno thought. Playing poker, and cheating in it, was one of the things he really was good at. Playing for money and cheating unnoticed was one source of money for him after his parents passed away. After years of practising he had became so good at it that even Tseng, the man with hawk's eyes that never missed a thing, couldn't notice it. How was it possible that Sephiroth noticed it? _'It's fucking impossible!'_

"But I have to admit, you're very good at it. For the first five games I didn't even notice it, and then it took me thee more games to make sure. It's very subtle," Sephiroth continued, pulling Reno out of his thoughts.

For some reason Reno felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards. It was nice to know that his skill was still acknowledged even though he had been busted, and maybe the fact that this was the second time Sephiroth had praised him was a small factor in his smile. "Well, I'll just have to make it even more subtle," Reno said and dealt the cards.

"I'd recommend you to stop cheating, or the next time we play I'll have to make you play naked so I know you're not hiding any cards," Sephiroth said in a dry voice and picked up his cards.

Just as Reno was wondering whether or not the SOLDIER was joking the doorbell rang a few times forming into a happy little tune that both Sephiroth and Reno recognised; the former had been familiar with it for the last twenty-one months and the later for the past week.

"Zack," Reno said, voicing their mutual thought, "Great, now we'll get another member in the game," he said jumping up from the couch and started walking towards the door to let his friend in.

"Now, be careful, if he catches you cheating he might really punish you."

The new tone in Sephiroth's deep voice made Reno turn around and look at the silver haired SOLDIER. And then he saw something he had thought was impossible. Sephiroth was smiling. It was small, though, just a little thing ghosting his lips, but a smile never the less. _'So, he has a sense of__ humor then,'_ Reno thought, _'A little weird one but at least something. Maybe this iceman is a human being after all.' _The Turk let a smile of his own spread on his face, but he was the only one smiling in the room, because Sephiroth's smile had faded away and the man was gathering the cards from the table and started to shuffle them his usual indifferent look on his face.

The little tune sounded from the door once more, making Reno realize that he had been staring at Sephiroth again. Reno turned around and walked to the door before the General lifted his eyes to Reno to see what was taking so long and catch him staring.

"Hi!" Zack said as Reno opened the door, and then the look on his face turned from cheerful to surprise as he realized who had opened the door. "Huh? Reno? You're here."

"Yeah. Have been for the last-" Reno turned to look at the clock on the wall, "two hours, it seems."

"You forgot that I was training with Cloud today," Zack said smirking and leaned against the door frame. Then his expression turned into mockery of worry. "Seph didn't eat you, did he?"

Reno waved his hand at Zack's comment. "Naw, he behaved the whole time," he said, and then, gesturing towards Sephiroth, he added: "We've been playin' poker."

"Poker?" the SOLDIER asked surprised and peered behind Reno to look at his commander who was sitting next to the coffee table where the cards had been dealt to three players.

Reno watched Zack's pondering look as the dark haired SOLDIER looked at Sephiroth. _'Yes, I taught him that,'_ Reno thought cockily and wanted to say it, but instead he slapped his friend on the back, pulling him out of his thoughts. "Are comin' to play or what?"

"Yeah, sure," Zack answered and walked into the condo, closing the door behind him.

Later that evening, Reno arrived to the slums of the forth sector half an hour late, but very proud of himself because even though he hadn't cheated again in the poker he had won almost all of them.

…And Sephiroth had noticed that he wasn't cheating so he didn't have to play naked.

* * *

**A/N:** For some reason, I don't like this chapter… Something's just not right in it. I don't know what, though… Maybe you could tell me, constructive criticism is always very welcome. 

Oh my God, this story broke the 20 review line. I'm so happy! Thanks everyone!


	5. Worming In

**Disclaimer:** Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square Enix and no financial profit is sought from this work.

**Warnings:** language, violence, blood, death and yaoi

* * *

**Chapter Five: Worming In**

Sephiroth. Sephiroth. Sephiroth. One paper after another, all needing his signature. Sephiroth put the paper he had just signed into the pile with the other signed ones and leaned back in his chair, releasing a beep breath and rolling his wrist. The best SOLDIER or not, even he wasn't immune to the irritating numb pain that started to plague everyone who had to repeat the same movement over and over again. Sephiroth cast a look towards the papers on the left corner of his desk and couldn't help grimacing. That stack of papers was twice the size of the one he had already signed.

Many of the SOLDIER thirds had just been upped to Second Class and almost all of the cadets had made it into Third, and all those diplomas needed his signature, and there were lots of men in the ShinRa military. Sephiroth couldn't understand why he was the one who needed to sign all the papers; he wasn't involved with the SOLDIER training in any way. And he didn't want to be, he'd much rather lead the already trained men in battlefield than spent his time trying to teach a bunch of little kids who had never even seen a real sword before to fight. And he wasn't even the head of the Peace Department (who actually was in charge of the SOLDIER training), and he didn't want to be that either, because once he would get promoted to the position that would mean the end of fieldwork and thus the end of battles, but the number of paperwork would only increase. Believe it or not, Heidegger had once been a rather attractive man with a healthy body, but the end of physical workout and long hours in the office had caused the man to look what he did now.

Sephiroth picked another of the papers and continued his robotic work of signing his name into the diplomas of unfamiliar and faceless SOLDIERs, all the while thinking how much he hated this part of his job. Lately he had been very bored, with the resistance movement laying low, and hoping to get some sort of work to keep himself occupied. But Zack and Reno had been pestering him so much that he had already forgotten the upcoming SOLDIER exams and the paperwork that followed it, and when he had walked into his office that morning and found the stacks of papers littering his desk, he hoped that he could take back all of his previous hopes of new work, or get a chance to change it into something physically more challenging. He would probably even prefer taking part in some of the ridiculous pastime activities that Zack and Reno kept offering him rather than wasting his time with paperwork that didn't even belong to him. Stupid ShinRa bureaucracy.

As if on cue, Sephiroth heard the door opening, and once again not being informed of a visitor by his secretary, the General knew who it was.

"Hey, Seph." He heard Zack's cheerful voice greeting him. And that was all, only one voice. When the lighter voice with a street accent didn't carry into his ears, and he had only heard one person's footsteps, Sephiroth lifted his eyes from the paper he had just signed to look at Zack walking towards him alone.

"Reno isn't with you?" Sephiroth asked mildly surprised, because from what he knew Reno had an evening shift and the clock was only barely twelve A.M, and in the past week the Turk had spent almost _all_ of his free time around Sephiroth (once even without Zack), and not even that lazy ass could still be in bed.

Zack quirked an eyebrow at his commander disbelievingly. "No," he said at last, and just to be sure, he continued: "He's working. The SOLDIER First nomination party will be held within two weeks, so the Pres doubled their workload… But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"Yes," Sephiroth said, feeling slightly embarrassed at forgetting it, but made sure that Zack couldn't notice it. "Yes, of course I knew that."

How could he have forgotten it? Tseng had mentioned it yesterday during his report. And he had the evidence of the upcoming nomination party lying on his desk in front of him. And he had the day marked on his calendar because he needed to be there. With all those things reminding him, how could he have forgotten it? He nearly never forgot work-related things.

Maybe he was just so used to Reno's presence that he just expected the redhead to walk into the room with Zack no matter where the President needed him at the moment.

And just when he had gotten used to the loud Turk? Just few days ago Sephiroth had found the youth rather irritating.

Sephiroth didn't have anything against people in general, it was just that in his childhood the only human contact he had had was mainly with Hojo, his lab assistants or Sephiroth's teachers, and especially if the former was involved, the contact was never something that could be called pleasant. So over the course of time, Sephiroth had learned that it was easiest just to be alone, and thus he acted coldly towards people to keep them at bay. And it seemed to work better than fine, a great majority of the people the General had to be in touch with on account of his job held a some sort of respecting fear towards him and feared to approach him. This far the ever so stubborn and fearless Zack was the only one who had wormed his way into Sephiroth's life.

And now it would seem that the young Turk was doing the same. The course of events was rather similar to the one Sephiroth had been through with Zack. But Zack was his second-in-command and needed to work close to the General, and even thought Sephiroth wasn't an expert at reading people, he knew that Zack couldn't stand having to work with someone that he wasn't friends with, so Zack could have befriended with him just for his own comfort. But Reno didn't need to do that, even if they were co-operating in the resistance movement case, they didn't work closely, and even if they did, Sephiroth was under the impression that the cocky Turk didn't give a damn about what other people thought of him.

But Sephiroth had to admit that the redhead's attitude had sparked a small interest in him the first day they had met… a totally professional fighter-to-fighter interest, that is. First of all, Reno's fighting talents had made the youth stand out of the crowd. But the one thing that had affected Sephiroth the most was the way Reno had treated him. Like before mentioned, almost all of the people Sephiroth had met after he became the General respected him with quiet fear. So having a Turk newbie yelling at him was something the silver haired man had never witnessed before, and that had been intriguing. Not that Sephiroth liked people who disrespected him, oh no, if someone would treat him without the respect a SOLDIER his rank deserved, that someone would be in trouble. But Reno did respect him, Sephiroth saw it in the way the redhead addressed him and he saw it in the Turk's eyes.

But even though Reno was an interesting person he still had his quirks and habits that irritated Sephiroth, which was the reason why he had treated the redhead with the same indifferent coldness he treated everyone else. Or it could have been because he had acted the same way so many years that it came naturally whether he wanted it or not?

And if his actions were involuntary, would he have in other circumstances acted differently and let Reno and his interesting nature come into his life? Well, that didn't matter now, since the redhead was already forcing his way into Sephiroth's life, despite the General's cold attitude. And he didn't know what to think of it. His immediate thought was that he didn't need anymore friends, Zack was more than enough.

'_Oh, right, Zack,'_ Sephiroth remembered that he wasn't alone in the room and averted his eyes from the unseen spot he had been staring at and looked at the dark haired man who was leaning on his commanders desk, careful not to scatter the papers.

"Welcome back Seph," Zack said grinning, "You looked so concentrated in your thoughts that I didn't dare to bother you. Is signing your name really so challenging that you have to stop to think?"

Sephiroth answered Zack's joking voice with silence and picked another paper to sign his name in it. He couldn't believe he had been thinking about Reno when he had work to do.

If getting used to the Turk and letting him into his life meant distractions from his work, however boring it was, he had to make sure that it wouldn't happen. And the funny thing was that when Sephiroth had noticed Zack's acquaintance in his life he hadn't spared a thought to it, it had just happened and he had accepted that. So why was he now obsessing about a Turk who would probably leave when their work together was over? At least Sephiroth hoped so.

"I hate this," he said at last in a dry voice, "Heidegger would better be signing the ones next year."

"Well," Zack said eyeing the stack of unsigned papers, "I have to say that this doesn't look fun by any definition. Too bad I can't help you with it."

"Not if you can't forge my signature."

"Heh, that would be fun if I could," Zack laughed and snatched a signed paper from Sephiroth's hands studying the bold signature, "Think of all the things I could buy on your tab."

"Then I'm more than glad that you can't. I can't afford a villa in Costa del Sol," Sephiroth said and took another diploma and signed it.

"Actually, I was thinking about a widescreen TV, but a villa in 'del Sol isn't a bad idea," Zack said grinning at his commander.

"Maybe not a bad idea, but an impractical one at least," Sephiroth said slightly amused and looked up from his paperwork "Most of our work is in Midgar, so your commute would take quite a while."

"I have vacations, Seph," Zack beamed, happy about the idea of a leave and Sephiroth's amused tone. "Ah! Which reminds me, I'm here for a reason, not just to bug you, I'm not even sure if could do it properly anymore without my partner in crime," Zack chuckled.

Sephiroth flinched inwardly; 'partner in crime', no doubt who that meant. And just when he had almost forgotten about the Turk…

"Since there's no news from the resistance movement," Zack continued, "and you don't need me here, I decided to take the day off. I have a date at three. But if something happens, I'll be in the Sector Five slums, just call me and I'll be back in duty, okay?"

Sephiroth answered with a simple nod, and continued the paperwork.

After that, the dark haired SOLDIER excused himself and left, wishing Sephiroth a good day, a small note of sarcasm in his voice.

When Sephiroth was left alone with the boring paperwork, he did his best for not let his thoughts drift into a certain redhead.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry about the long(ish) wait, life took over things… Or at least a writer's block, laziness and a broken wrist. And when I'm finally able to write something it's short and boring… But I promise I'll get on with the plot in next chapter. And there'll be a small slice of lemon as well. 


	6. The Dream

**Disclaimer:** Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square Enix and no financial profit is sought from this work.

**Warnings:** language, violence, blood, death and YAOI: a small lemon in this chapter!

* * *

**Chapter Six: The Dream**

Reno emerged from the bathroom, a towel tied around his waist, his damp hair hanging loose. Without bothering to put on the light he walked straight to his kitchen. He needed a beer. He didn't care how late, or how early, it was. He needed a beer, so he has going to have one. He couldn't remember when was the last time he had needed a beer this badly, probably never…

He made his way to the fridge and opened it, the little light inside was the only source of light in his apartment. Not that his place was dark even during the unholy hours of the night, the everlasting Mako glow of Midgar's reactors seeped trough the apartment's windows, colouring everything green.

Reno grabbed a beer, kicked the door close and strode to the living room, cursing under his breath. He dropped himself on the couch, put his bare feet on the messy coffee table before him and switched on the TV.

Midgar's TV shop sold the stupidest (and ridiculously expensive) things one could ever imagine. And the only time the stupid thing was on was the time when few were to watch it, mainly during the day when most people were at work, and during the quietest hours of the night. This told Reno that it must be about four or five in the morning, which meant that it was only three hours since he had gone to bed (which was directly after he had arrived home), and three until he needed to be back at the slums, snooping around for the resistance movement.

'_Great,'_ the red head thought as he opened the beer can and took a long gulp to calm his nerves. _'Just motherfucking great. I've been running around this goddamn city, digging up every fucking hole, questioning and threatening every stupid punk for the last three days, so I've barely had any sleep. My sleep deprivation is big enough without any stupid, shitty, fucking dreams!' _...Wet dreams to be exact.

Yeah? So what if he was having wet dreams. He was a healthy young man, and it was perfectly normal for a 17-year-old youth to have wet dreams from time to time. …But not now, not like this, and not about _him_.

Reno changed the channel, trying to find something more intelligent to watch than a too perky man with a fake smile trying to sell a Materia-based monster alarm. The best option he came up with was a _very _old movie about a detective or something of the like, but it didn't hold his interest for long when his dream started to dominate his thoughts.

Even though Reno tried to convince himself other vice, it was definitely the best wet dream he had ever had, and there was a big wet mark in his sheets to prove that. Speaking of witch, he needed to change the sheets. But not yet, he was too tired, and pissed, to do so, and if he didn't do it maybe he would forget all about the dream.

Reno grumbled and pulled a hand though his mass of red hair and drowned the last of his beer. He leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes.

His attempts at ignoring his dream failed gloriously.

Reno recalled those beautiful eyes, usually so cold now clouded with passion, that wet mouth panting warm air on his neck and those soft lips trailing hot kisses down his body. Faint sweat tingling from that flawless, pale skin, and long, silky-soft silver strands of hair tickling his arms and legs. That sexy, deep voice softly purring his name and that intense pleasure when his lover's mouth closed around him or that wonderful feeling of fullness when he pushed inside him…

Reno looked down at his lap and sighed in frustration. _'Oh, shit. I'm gonna need another shower… a cold one, a very, _very _cold one.'_

Reno got up from the couch and walked towards the bathroom cursing the dream and a certain General.

* * *

Three hours, seven cups of coffee and four cold showers later (and the showers weren't only because he needed them to keep his body unaroused, it was because cold showers helped him to stay awake) Reno reached the place where he was supposed to meet Rude in the slums of sixth sector. The streets were busy with people hurrying to their jobs in the Wall Market, and no-one spared a look at a very tired looking Turk leaning against the slide in the playground. 

Reno was early, and it would take about twenty minutes before Rude would get there, maybe even more because Reno had the tendency to be late and his partner had adjusted himself to that and usually shoved up at least ten minutes late so that he didn't have to wait long for his lazy partner. But today Reno had left early. He had decided to stay awake the rest of the night after the dream, and in the morning he had been so damn tired that he had decided to leave early, hoping that clear air would refresh him. Although none of the air in the slums could be called neither 'clear' nor 'refreshing'.

Reno yawned and rubbed his tired eyes. He wanted to sleep so badly. Maybe he could take a little nap while waiting Rude, he could sleep on his feet if he just had something to lean on, and he was a light enough sleeper to wake up if someone tried to mug him or a monster decided to attack. But he decided against it, because the firs thing he saw when he closed his eyes was a scene from his way too erotic dream.

Reno didn't know why the dream intimidated him so much. It wasn't because it was about another man, he had had some experiments earlier in his life and he was confident in his sexuality. And it shouldn't be because it was about Sephiroth, every woman and some men who had as much as seen his picture would be dreaming about him, no-one could deny the fact that the man was just simply gorgeous. And being a fighter himself, Reno respected his unbelievable talent in combat, so that was another reason why dreaming about the silver haired SOLDIER shouldn't have been so weird.

But Reno had seen Sephiroth's picture long ago, and had witnessed his wonderful fighting over a week ago. And he hadn't had any dreams then. So why was he having them now? Probably it was because he hadn't known the man, and once he had met him, half of Reno's awe towards the man had been killed by his sour attitude. Maybe it was the day Reno had spent alone with Sephiroth that had changed his attitude towards the man, because in the end he had enjoyed himself and Sephiroth's company hadn't been so bad. And the subtle smile had been kind of beautiful.

So, if Reno had enough reasons to dream about the man, why was he so intimidated by it? Maybe the redhead was afraid. But of what, he didn't know.

'_And why the fuck I'm even thinking about this?' _a tired voice in his head said, _'It's just a stupid dream.'_

Reno shook his head to clear his thoughts and decided to think something else.

But after a while the Turk got very irritated at himself when everything seemed to finally remind him of Sephiroth; he recognised the owner of the weapon shop and then found himself thinking about Sephiroth's sword, he looked at the houses built from scrape metal and they somehow managed to remind him of Sephiroth's shoulder plates, he looked down at his own shoes and noticed that they were dirty unlike Sephiroth's leather boots which were always so spotless. And then he realised that he hadn't seen the silver haired man in three days.

Reno was just about to start groaning and hitting his head on the mog-shaped slide when he noticed a familiar blue suit and shades walking towards him in the crowd. And his immediate thought was that even though Rude was almost a head taller than most of the people around him, Sephiroth was even taller.

And that was when Reno realised that he was obsessed with Sephiroth.

He banged his head against the slide.

Rude walked up to his partner, one eyebrow slightly raised behind his sunglassesshoving his surprise, maybe because of Reno's odd behaviour, or even the odder thing that he was _on time_.

"You're late!" Reno yelled at the bald Turk. _'And thanks to that, I was left alone with my twisted thoughts and they made _me_ twisted!' _

Rude didn't even flinch when the first thing his partner said to him in the morning was an angry yell. "Good morning to you too," he simply said.

Reno kicked a little rock that was lying next to his feet on the ground and cursed under his breath something about stone faced people and short answers. "Well, let's go then. We have work to do an' I don't think the resistance movement is gonna just pop out in front of us," Reno grumbled, stuffed his hands in his pockets and pushed himself off the slide.

Rude was left staring at his partner's back and wondering if Reno had hit his head hard on the slide.

Reno's anger calmed down during their work as he and Rude moved in the shadows of the alleyways, searching for possible hideouts and asking people questions. They moved quickly and stayed rather unnoticed thanks to Reno who had lived in the sector six and thus knew it like the back of his hand.

During time Reno was reminded just how tired he actually was and he kept yawning almost every tenth minute. Rude noticed it and once asked if Reno's cranky behaviour was due to his lack of sleep. Reno answered it with a tired groan and flipped his partner of.

Just when Reno though that this day would be no different of the rest and they would find no trace of the resistance movement he spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

Reno jumped back in the alley he had emerged from and pulled Rude with him. "See that guy with dirty blond hair?" he asked pointing a man who was carrying a big plastic back with him.

Rude nodded, and because Reno was watching the man and not him he made a small noise of acknowledgement.

"He's in the movement," Reno said and turned back to his partner, "The easiest way to find the nest-"

"-is to follow him," Rude finished.

And so they did. The Turks stayed a safe distance away from the man while they followed him out of the Wall Market and into what seemed to be a deserted warehouse behind the Honey Bee Inn. The storage was still standing firm but it was in an even crappier condition than the rest of the buildings around it, which meant that it must have been abandoned long ago and it could be expected to be swarming with monsters. It was a perfect hideout.

"Well, my friend," Reno said after their prey had disappeared inside the warehouse, "I think it's time to contact the General."

* * *

**A/N: **Yes, I put the infamous 'dream sequence' into the fic, but this being my firs longer fic I think I have the right to use some of the clichés. 

And I'm pretty sure some of you were expecting a lot more from the lemon, sorry about that, but when I say 'a small slice of lemon' I do mean a _small_ slice of lemon.


	7. Decisions

**Disclaimer:** Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square Enix and no financial profit is sought from this work.

**Warnings:** language, violence, blood, death and yaoi

* * *

**Chapter Seven: Decisions**

The humming of the engine was the only sound that cut trough the tense silence in the back of the van, and the silence was making Reno feel uncomfortable. He tried to sit still and quiet like the rest of the passengers, but his nervous energy forced him to idly play with his ponytail or the buttons of his half undone shirt or with anything he could get his hands on.

Starting to feel stupid and unprofessional in his nervousness, he stopped poking at his watch and spared a look at his co-workers in the van. His eyes fell almost instantly on the source of the choking silence. It didn't take a mind reader to tell that Sephiroth was pissed. Though the General was very good at concealing his emotions, his anger was evident in his narrowed, blazing eyes, and he kept intently staring at the van wall in front of him somewhere over Rude's shoulder, and Reno had to wonder just how uncomfortable his partner must feel when the angry gaze was directed almost directly at him. At that moment Reno was very grateful that he wasn't the one sitting opposite to Sephiroth.

Reno turned his gaze away from Sephiroth and Rude and looked at Zack who was sitting opposite to him. Even the dark haired SOLDIER was sitting silently and was somewhere deep in thought. This made Reno even more nervous, because usually, when an awkward silence fell upon them, Zack tried to lighten up the mood, but now he was sitting quietly next to his commander and was staring off into space. That, if anything was enough to prove the fact that Sephiroth was extremely pissed, and would probably bite somebody's head of if said someone tried to crack a stupid joke, or even dared to breathe too loudly.

When nothing and no-one would chase away the silence and ease his nervousness, Reno decided to follow his friend's example and think of something else than the General's anger level. He tried to grab any passing though that floated in his mind to keep himself entertained and sane for the rest of the ride, but his nervousness and sleep deprivation together shortened his attention span enough that forming sober thoughts was quite difficult. And soon Reno found his gaze scanning his surroundings and finally falling on Sephiroth… again.

Even though the General was angry, and when angry he was at his scariest, Reno couldn't tear his eyes from him. Even when the man was most likely furious in the inside, to the outside he still managed to look composed and cool. The only thing to betray his calm composure, besides his eyes, was his mouth that was drawn to a thin, angry line.

To his surprise and chock, Reno soon found himself thinking if those lips were as soft in reality as they had been in his dream. And then the Turk started feeling extremely embarrassed. Here he was, thinking about a stupid (yet very pleasurable) dream about the world's greatest General, when he should have been thinking about how to explain himself to said world's greatest, _pissed_ General.

Forcing the thoughts about Sephiroth's kisses, caresses and the overall events of his dream back into the furthest corner of his mind, or better yet, _out_ of his mind, Reno decided that this _had_ to stop. It was very much influencing his work and taking his mind off from the important tings at hand. Some part of Reno wanted to reason that there was no reason to worry about it like this, it was just a dream, a dream that he had had only few hours ago, so it was only normal that his mind still lingered on it. But then another part of him was hotly arguing that statement, pointing out that he had never before stopped to think about his other wet dreams for this long, especially in a situation like this. But that was what an obsession was, thinking about the source of the obsession at all times, and Reno had already admitted being obsessed with Sephiroth. An obsession that just had to stop.

That decided, the only thing was to figure out exactly how to rid himself of the obsession. Sadly, there were no rehab centres for poor people suffering from a Sephiroth obsession, so Reno had to think something else. The easiest way would probably be to avoid seeing the man, but that was impossible, Reno was co-operating with him, and he wouldn't drop off the case, first of all, it wasn't his decision to make and no way would he confess to anyone about his obsession!

Suddenly, a certain event from his childhood came to Reno's mind. When Reno had been about six years old, he had been almost obsessed about getting a pellet gun. He had insisted his parents to buy one for him, and when that hadn't worked he had even tried to steal it. When he had finally gotten the toy for his birthday present, he had played with it for a week and then forgotten all about it.

Reno wasn't six anymore, but people don't really chance so much in ten years. Maybe the same thing would happen again; get a taste of his obsession, then forget it and move on.

It was worth a shot. After all, what did he have to lose? Well, considering that Sephiroth didn't seem to be interested romantically engaging himself into anything, and would probably eliminate anyone who dared to touch him in a way that didn't please him, Reno had quite a lot to lose. But if he didn't act and get it over with, it was only a matter of time until he would open his mouth in the wrong place, at the wrong time and to the wrong person, and then he would have to suffer the General's wrath anyway.

So, Reno decided that if he didn't get over his obsession in the following days, he would execute his plan. It wouldn't have to be anything big, a simple kiss would do.

The rest of the ride was spent in the same tense silence, as Reno wondered different ways to save his face and possibly more, if things really came down to acting on his plan. The Turk had never heard if Sephiroth had ever been with anyone, and it could be assumed that, like most people in the world, he was straight. So getting unwanted attention from a man might anger the SOLDIER more than getting unwanted attention from a woman, and that, considering his well-known reputation as a cold hearted killing machine could cause massive trouble to Reno.

When the van reached it's destination at the ShinRa building's parking lot, Sephiroth stood, opened the door and stepped gracefully down from the car. The rest of the passengers followed him like good little puppies following their master.

Just when Reno was about to end the silence and announce that he would be heading home to get some much wanted sleep before his next shift started, Sephiroth's deep voice reached his ears.

"I want to see you Turks in my office. I'd like to hear a report concerning on what exactly happened before we arrived at the scene." Sephiroth didn't even turn to look at them as he said it; instead he just kept walking towards the elevator.

Reno turned to look at Zack, almost pleading for help. All he got was an apologetic shrug saying there was nothing he could do to help. Surrendering, the redhead turned to his partner and they followed Sephiroth to the elevator and to their doom.

The silence was even more uncomfortable in the small space of the elevator than it had been in the wan. Though Sephiroth's tone had been calm and now he was also standing calmly and watching the red numbers above the elevator's door, it was clear to both Reno and Rude that once they reached Sephiroth's office they'd be exposed to the General's rage and a suitable punishment.

When the door opened to the right floor revealing the hall, Sephiroth stepped out and the Turks followed him to his office. The General walked behind his desk but didn't sit down and didn't offer a seat to the Turks either.

"Now, tell me, how is it possible that you've let the resistance movement escape not only once, but _twice_?" Sephiroth asked, his voice betraying its calmness only little. Though the question itself wasn't directed exactly to him, Sephiroth's eyes never left Reno as he spoke. That made the redhead nervous and a little angry too.

While Reno was fighting not to let either of those emotions show on his face, Rude, perhaps out of senior obligations, started: "Though I wasn't personally involved in the firs incident, I can say that it was out of an unfortunate change of plans on the target's side and a lacking contacting possibilities from ours, sir. And for today, the target must have noticed us and decided to move. Or, it's in their plan to keep on moving so that they're harder to find."

"'Lacking contacting possibilities'?" the SOLDIER repeated, "Perhaps there was something else that was lacking, in the firs escape? Something that was also involved in this one?" Sephiroth's eyes had barely moved to glance at Rude during his speech; instead they had been looking at Reno, making the young Turk feel even more uncomfortable. And the words, with their innuendo, even when said in an even tone, were enough to make Reno snap.

"Are you accusin' me on this?!"

"It was more of and observation than an accusation, though I wouldn't object calling it that," Sephiroth replied in a cold tone.

"And how the hell can you blame me?!" Reno yelled, truly offended, "You were the ones late today!" Reno continued, pointing towards the man on the other side of the desk as he made his accusation.

It must have been the man's unbelievably good ability to conceal his emotions, since Sephiroth didn't seem to react to the redhead's outburst at all. Though he placed his hands on the desk and leaned forward, closer to the Turks, making himself seem more intimidating. Then he said in calm, almost patronizing tone: "It didn't cross your mind to hold them back while we were in our way to the scene? It's a part of your job."

Before Reno could open his mouth again and throw out another angry and idiotic defense, Rude, finally getting over the shock that his young partner had actually lashed out at the General, butted in into their quarrel. "The target was highly armed, sir. And since we were ordered to just gather information, we didn't have the proper armory with us and we were also outnumbered. So, attacking them would have been a highly impractical thing to do, sir." And then, hoping that it would calm Sephiroth down a little, he added: "We're terribly sorry, sir."

Then the bald Turk gave Reno a look behind his shades that told the redhead to just shut up and swallow his pride. The young man had been really defensive towards his skill and profession from the very start he became a Turk, and while that attitude could take him high up the company ladder, it could also be his downfall if he didn't learn to obey and respect his superiors, especially if those superiors happened to be living war legends with a deadly reputation.

Reno understood the look and stayed silent, though he made a note that he wasn't happy with it by releasing a frustrated sigh.

For the firs time since entering the office, Sephiroth had been looking at Rude when the Turk spoke. And probably the explanation the older Turk had offered had had its desired effect on the SOLDIER, for Sephiroth straightened himself and ignored Reno's sigh of protest.

"Has the number of the participants in the resistance movement increased?" Sephiroth asked, looking like there had been no fight at all. Unlike Reno, whose fists were clenched angrily and he was glaring the General.

"If our count was right, there were 16 people in the hideout," Rude answered, not trusting his partner to come up with a reply polite enough.

"So they have managed to recruit three more people," Sephiroth thought out loud. "How strongly armed were they?"

"From what we saw, they had many firearms, both pistols and rifles, and a few close contact weapons as well: spears and knives and short swords. And it is safe to assume that they have materia, too, but of which level, we don't know." Rude answered.

Sephiroth was quiet for a while, processing the information he was given. "Fine. I understand your decision to withdraw," he said finally, and the Turks released a relieved breath, or at least Rude did, Reno was still too angry. "But," the SOLDIER continued, "I want a written report concerning the incident, and I want it on my desk by tomorrow morning. You have the permission to take a leave from your next search shift, if you need the extra time to write the report." Then Sephiroth sat down and gave the Turks the permission to leave.

They nodded, said the formalities, though Reno did it through gritted teeth, and exited the office. Once they had closed the door, and most likely thought that they were out of Sephiroth's earshot, they started talking. But with his better hearing, Sephiroth heard them anyway.

"What the hell was that, Reno? You yelled at the General." Though a little angry, the voice was surprised above all.

"Oh, shut up. Didn't ya hear how he accused _me_ when _he_ was late? He's just too damn proud to admit that he's wrong." The voice was marred with the same anger and frustration of before. And then the volume lowered a lot and the frustration grew. "Fuckin' narcissist hypocrite… I can't believe I'm actually havin' dreams about him…"

There was a pause, and then: "What?"

"Nothin'. Just forget that." The voice was rushed, and a little bit troubled but most of all angry. "Let's go write the fuckin' report."

Then there were footsteps and another opening and closing of a door as the Turks left the waiting room and walked away.

Sephiroth sat behind his desk, mildly confused and still a little bit angry. First of all, he didn't like being called a narcissist hypocrite, especially when it wasn't true, and he didn't like that the mission had failed again. But it wasn't Reno's name calling that was at the top of his mind, it was the mentioning of a dream. Unlike the name calling, that comment had been completely unexpected, and it left him confused.

After thinking for a while about what Reno might have meant, Sephiroth decided that since he didn't know the whole context, and most importantly, he _didn't care_, he dropped the subject and concentrated on the job.

The resistance movement had escaped again, and the number of members had increased. The SOLDIER First nomination party would be held after eleven days, and the President wanted the movement gone before that day because the party was a public event and it would be a perfect opportunity for the movement to strike. And Sephiroth wanted the movement gone before the party too, he knew he would hate the party enough already without the President being edgy because the movement was still on the loose. And he also wanted to get the case closed. It had already taken them over two weeks, and during that time there had been two failures, and Sephiroth had gotten himself a loud, lazy and cocky co-worker with a temper.

He didn't like failures. And he wasn't greatest friends with Reno at the moment either.

Rude was right, the Turks weren't properly armed when they were just gathering information, and even if they started carrying more and better weapons with them, they still couldn't take the whole movement down, or even hold them back long enough for the SOLDIERs to arrive at the scene. The Turks really were good fighters, but they couldn't be a mach to highly armed group of 16 people; there was a good reason why both the Turks _and_ SOLDIER were working in this case together.

And, even though he had voiced his thought inappropriately, Reno was right too. The SOLDIERs had been late, but there was nothing that could be done to that. Depending on where the resistance movement's hideout was in the slums, it would take them from 20 to 45 minutes to get there from the plate, and a lot could happen in twenty minutes, just like today's incident had proved.

Taking all those things into consideration, Sephiroth decided that there was only one thing that he could do. He wasn't going to like it, but he really wanted to get an end to this.

He picked up his phone and told his secretary to inform the President that he would be coming over.

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**A/N:** I'm really, really sorry it took me this long to update! But first I was busy with school and then I had a very persistent case of haitsu running around in my head, refusing to give room to any other fandoms, and then I had computer problems … and other excuses to hide the fact that I've just been downright lazy. Really, I didn't even realize how fast six months can go by.

And thanks for all the lovely reviews, those have been one thing that have been urging me to continue writing this story. I hope that at least someone is still reading Stray and you all haven't given up on me and the story.


	8. Scars

**Disclaimer:** Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square Enix and no financial profit is sought from this work.

**Warnings:** language, violence, blood, death and yaoi

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**Chapter ****Eight: Scars**

Reno was walking towards the company vehicle garage in the back of the ShinRa building, tired and ten minutes late. As the resistance movement had managed to slip past them the day before, his and Rude's field work had been put to halt for the day, and after turning in the report the General wanted, they'd been free for the rest of the day and Reno had done nothing but slept once he got home after the office hours. But one night's worth of sound sleep was not enough to make up for sleep deprivation for four days, and he had even been woken from his much needed sleep in the late evening with a call from the office, informing him about a change in plans.

He had been groggy, not to mention a little annoyed, when answering the phone, so Reno hadn't caught all the details, but the situation was that instead of meeting Rude in the slums of the Seventh, like the original plan was, he and his partner would start in the morning from the ShinRa building, where they'd be joined by Zack and Sephiroth. Apparently it had been requested by the General himself, to Reno's great surprise.

When Reno reached the garage and opened the door, he spotted three people standing by the motorcycles. One of them he quickly recognized as Rude and the other as Zack, but the third man didn't look like Sephiroth. Like the missing General, the man was taller than the other two, but he was wearing dark jeans and a dull gray coat with the hood pulled over his head, looking nothing like the victorious fighter in leather that the Turk had been expecting. Only when Reno walked closer to the men, and saw the green glow from the stranger's eyes, and heard a familiar cold voice, he recognized the man.

Completely ignoring the comment about him being late, Reno asked, surprised: "General Sephiroth?"

Before the man even had the chance to answer, Zack piped up: "Yes. We figured that sending Seph down there looking like he usually does could cause troubles, so I made him a disguise. What do you think?"

After the Wutai war, Sephiroth's fame rivalled those of the most famous movie stars in Midgar, so disguising the man made sense. If word got around in the slums that The Great Sephiroth was down there, searching for something, the resistance movement would certainly relocate or stay completely hidden, and that would further complicate their job.

Reno took a closer look at Sephiroth, who for the most part looked like any random man from the streets. His hair, which was one of his most distinguishable features, had been tucked under the long coat and the hood of it was shadowing his face well enough. Even his long sword had been wrapped in dark fabric. The weapon itself wasn't even nearly as well known as its wielder, but a blade that long alone could draw a lot of attention, so it was a good precaution.

"Seems good. But, there's one thing," Reno said and lifted a hand to his hair, pulling out his sunglasses from the red mess of his hair and handed them out to Sephiroth. Besides his long silvery hair, Sephiroth's Mako green eyes were what made him stand out. Reno didn't know if SOLDIERs became unconsciously ignorant towards the glow of their eyes, or any other reason why Zack had failed to shield them when playing dress-up with the General. "Wear these. Yer eyes'll give ya away if people get close."

Nodding, Sephiroth took the glasses and put them on. "Now that all of us have finally arrived, we need to move. I and Zack are joining another shift in Sector Five at 1500, and I'd like to get some work done before that," Sephiroth said as he turned around and got on the bike reserved for him for the day.

"You're welcome," Reno muttered under his breath at the SOLDIER's back. Yawning, he then signed out his bike and followed the other three out of the garage.

For easier individual mobility, they rode motorcycles to the Sector Seven slums and after arriving to their destination near the central pillar, they hid their expensive ShinRa-built bikes under the railway structures and continued on foot, to appear less suspicious.

"There's no use for all four of us to move together. We will split into two groups to better cover up the area, one Turk and a SOLDIER in a group, so we'll have the expertise of both," Sephiroth said, once they gathered up in front of their bikes after hiding them.

"I call Zack," Reno said as he stepped next to his friend, though the pairs must've been clear to all of them once the General had voiced his plan.

"No. You're coming with me, Reno," Sephiroth answered to the Turk's great surprise. "We should try to make the groups equal in terms of strength and experience. Rude is the senior one in Turks and I in SOLDIER, so that determines the group formation."

It was a sensible way of doing things, but Reno wasn't thrilled with the outcome. Even after a well-deserved and peaceful night of sleep, he was against being left alone with Sephiroth. With his coldness and mad determination, the General was the most boring and slaving man to have as a partner in a tiring mission like this. Also, even if time had passed since it, Reno was still annoyed at Sephiroth about the accusations the man had thrown at him the day before. But, joining the Turks in the search like this must've made Sephiroth realise that he had been wrong in the matter, and that was at least something. Maybe as close to an apology Reno could ever get with the man.

"Fine," Reno replied, knowing that even if he wanted to, he was in no position to decline an order from the General.

"We will move diagonally through the sector, starting from the walls and moving towards the middle of the sector. Zack and Rude, you take the North side, we will take the South. If one group finds something, they'll contact the other. I and Zack need to leave for the Fifth at 1450. We most likely can't have the whole area searched by then, so after we leave, you Turks are free to continue as you please. Any questions?" Sephiroth ended his string of commands.

As none arose, the group split in two and headed to their assigned directions. The area close to the central pillar was scarcely populated due to the rumble of the passing trains and the downpour of dirty water that cascaded down from the plate on rainy days, so it was quickly searched and soon Reno and Sephiroth were reaching the densely built area of the slums and passing more people who, to their relief, were completely ignorant to the SOLDIER's presence.

Reno also felt a little twisted pride when leading the disguised Sephiroth down the streets and small alleyways. No matter what annoyance he was currently feeling towards the man, the fact that he was a living legend and an accomplished war hero never left his mind, and to have a man of the General's status following him, made Reno feel proud of his actions, even if everyone in ShinRa knew that Turks were more talented in investigating than SOLDERs were.

The Turk's proud thoughts soon came to a halt together with his steps when he realized his pant pockets were unusually empty. Frantically, he tapped his hands over his body, checking all the pockets hidden in his blue suit. "Aw, hell no," Reno swore, when he didn't find the familiar shape.

"What?" Sephiroth asked behind him.

"I forgot my PHS at the bike," Reno said, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

Sephiroth let out an annoyed sigh. "How could you forget it? Contacting the other group is important now when we're split up."

"Oh, shut up." Reno retorted and spun around to look at the man behind him. It was an extremely impolite way to talk to his superior, but Reno didn't like the tone of his voice, especially after the incident the day before, which still made him easily irritable. Also, lashing out at Sephiroth was easier when the man didn't look his intimidating self. "I'm tired, 'kay? Have been fo' days. That makes a brain forgetful," he defended his mishap, and added: "I'll go get the damn thing."

"Can't we manage with mine?" Sephiroth asked as Reno walked past him.

"No," Reno replied, not turning to look at him. "Ya never know which one Zack an' Rude will call, an' then we don't have time to waste. Besides, I can't have it stolen. I'll be back in twenty minutes."

Reno broke into a jog, cursing his mistake and tired mind. While the Turks never had any confidential company info saved in their PHS, the numbers alone were precious information and shouldn't be left to the hands of wrong people. The redhead knew from experience that the slums had all kinds of people lurking around, looking for things to steal and profit from. So even if they had hidden their bikes well, someone could still come across them and his PHS in the hidden compartment during the day.

Reno was so absorbed in his reprimanding thoughts that he failed to notice the hand grabbing for his shoulder from one of the small alleyways until he was yanked back into it. Suddenly, there were two sets of hands on him, strongly pinning his arms to his back. Just as Reno was about to turn his head around to look at his attackers, a familiar man with slanted eyes and black shoulder-length hair stepped in front of him.

"Eiji," Reno murmured in surprise at the leader of the resistance movement.

"Long time no see, Reno," the man replied and reached to remove Reno's nightstick from his belt, "If that even is your real name."

Eiji's voice was tight with anger he was trying to restrain, which made Reno's stomach twist in anxiety. With the removal of his weapon along with the way the two men, Jawei and Leroy, as Reno noted looking over his shoulders, were forcefully gripping his arms, it was clear that the men weren't happy to meet their lost comrade. Obviously they had figured out his betrayal... And Reno had cemented it by wearing his Turk uniform, which luckily many didn't connect to the ShinRa, as very few people outside of the company even knew of the department's existence. But even in his un-kept fashion the dark blue suit was more upscale than his undercover persona was supposed to afford. So any lies and pretence of still being part of the movement were useless and would probably give him even more harm in the hands of the three strongest men in the whole movement.

"I have heard that you have been searching for us with another blue-suit after the massacre in the Sector Two base, where you mysteriously disappeared," Eiji said, and when Reno stood silent, not admitting a thing, the Wuitaiese man continued: "The way the poor men and women were brutally killed points to the direction that they were killed by no else but SOLDIERs. It makes me sick that we had a disgusting ShinRa rat like you among us!" There was a short pause after the angry spat, and then Eiji snorted: "But I have to admit you were a damn good actor, the story about your family fooled us all. Was it scripted by the ShinRa or did you come up with it yourself?"

Reno had been silently watching Eiji and evaluating the dangerousness of the situation. He was now unarmed and outnumbered, not to mention immobilised. Even in the morning sun the alleyway was dark because of the shade of the plate above and the lack of streetlights, they were also close to the main pillar so the traffic of people was almost nonexistent. Reno had little to no chance of walking away unharmed should things ignite and a fight to start, but the degrading comment at his family made him snap. "I didn't lie about that!"

"Oh. You didn't?" Eiji asked, genuinely surprised. But then his face turned into a sneer of despise. "So you're just a deceptive back-stabber with no honor?"

At that comment, Reno's whole being flared with anger. He wasn't still completely over the guilt of his decision to become a Turk, but he liked to believe that, just like Zack had said, his family was happy that he got himself out of the slums. Instinctively, Reno lunged towards Eiji, but was kept still by his captors. Unable to inflict physical damage to the man, Reno spat on his face and growled: "Fuck you, ya piece o' shit! At least I made somethin' out of my life."

That was what pushed Eiji's anger over the edge. He switched on the electricity in Reno's nightstick and hit him hard with it, the shocks followed by a strong kick to his stomach, which effectively knocked the air out of Reno and he slumped down in the arms of the men holding him, gasping for breath.

"Take him deeper in the alley." Reno could hear Eiji say to his accomplices, and the two men started dragging him.

Soon Reno was dropped on his knees on the ground, his arms still held captive. His lungs were burning painfully and his head felt dizzy in the lack of oxygen. Reno tried to calm down the panic rising in him as he focused on breathing, but the shallow breaths he was able to draw where whiny and weak and it made him more alarmed.

"You know, Reno, there was an old tradition in Wutai about marking traitors, so people would know to avoid them. The tradition was abandoned about eighty years ago, though, because it was thought to be cruel and that people deserve another chance. Generally I agree, but in _your_ case," Eiji said, and Reno had never heard anyone address him with such venom in their voice before, "I'll make an exception."

Reno heard his nightstick falling to the ground and he lifted his eyes to look up at Eiji, still gasping for breath. The man was holding a knife in his hand. He said something in Wutaiese to Jawei, who then gripped handful of Reno's hair and pulled him to face Eiji.

"I recommend you to stay very still. You wouldn't want to lose an eye," Eiji said seriously, and unable to move, Reno waited with cold dread what was going to happen.

Eiji lifted up the knife and slashed it at Reno's face, right above his left cheek bone. The action was quick but painful as Reno could feel the sharp knife cutting deep into his flesh and he let out a scream, barely audible with his damaged lungs and diaphragm. Right after Eiji was done cutting the left side of his face, he brought the knife down on Reno's right cheek bone as well, making an identical cut there and sending more blood streaming down the redhead's face. After the second cut, Reno was released and instinctively he brought his hands to the aching cuts on his face, smearing blood into his eyes. His heart was pounding, his whole body shaking with adrenaline, fear and anger, and he was still trying to catch his breath. Then, over the loud thumping of his heart, he could hear someone yelling his name.

"Reno!"

The injured Turk lifted his head up and dropped his hands from his eyes to see a tall figure running towards them, unwrapping a long sword.

'Sephiroth,' Reno thought in relief as Jawei and Leroy left his sides to attack the disguised SOLDIER with Eiji.

Reno spotted his nightstick laying an arm's reach from him and he grabbed it and tried to stand up and join the fight. His legs wouldn't support his weight though, and Reno fell back on his knees. Then he heard the Wutaiese men gasp in horror with a word he didn't understand and he looked up to see Sephiroth land to the ground from a jump up to the air to evade their attacks, the hood falling off his face and his silver hair escaping the confines of his coat. All the men in the battle froze for few seconds until Sephiroth attacked them, cutting a dazed Leroy in his upper torso. Reno took a deep, shaky breath and tried to push himself up again, but failed. Cursing his weak body, Reno listed to the decreasing sounds of the battle near him, trying to fill his lungs with air and every now and then get up on his shaky legs.

Reno turned to look at the fight just in time to see Jawei fall to the ground, where his two comrades already laid deadly still. Sephiroth slashed his sword through the air in one swift motion, shaking the blood off from it. Then he strode over to Reno, who noted that his sunglasses had fallen off in the fight, too.

"Where are you hurt?" The silver-haired man hastily asked as he knelt next to Reno.

"Stomach an'-" Reno replied, gesturing to his bloody face.

"Any broken bones?"

Reno shook his head, an action that made him feel quite dizzy.

"Good. Do you have a Restore materia?"

"No," Reno said, opting for talking again, even if he didn't like how weak his voice sounded.

"Potions?"

"No."

Sephiroth sighed, frustrated. "You should always equip yourself suitable for battles."

"Ya don't have any?" Reno asked, too dizzy and breathless to react to the tone and reprimanding like he normally would have. He was on a mission with two insanely powerful SOLDIERs; he shouldn't have bothered with combat or materia!

"I equip myself suitably, and I hardly need them," Sephiroth replied evenly, reaching for his PHS from his coat pocket. He dialled a number and waited for the other end to pick up.

"Zack," he said when his second-in-command answered his call, "Do you or Rude have Restore materia? Reno is injured." A pause, then: "Good. Where are you? How fast can you get it here?" Another pause, during which he eyed Reno critically. "I see. We're close to the bikes; it'll be faster if we ride there."

Without a goodbye, Sephiroth disconnected the call and turned to look at Reno. "You heard me, right? Can you get up?"

"I can try," Reno replied and tried to push himself on his feet again, now with more determination than before. He almost made it up, but his shaking knees gave in the end.

Luckily, Sephiroth was there to catch the swearing Turk before he fell to the ground again. "Looks like I'll have to carry you," the silver haired man said and lifted Reno into his arms.

Sephiroth carried Reno in front of him, one arm around his ribcage and other in the back of his knees. Reno associated the position to carrying women, damsels in distress, and it made him feel slightly embarrassed. He'd have preferred to be carried over the SOLDIER's shoulders, but it would've made breathing even more difficult to him, and Sephiroth was smart enough to see that.

Trying to stand up had made him feel even dizzier than before, and Reno could feel his mind slipping as they made their way to the bikes. Groggily, he was aware of Sephiroth lowering him down on the motorcycle, and telling him to sit up, and then he could feel Sephiroth getting on the bike behind him, steadying the disoriented Turk against his body with one hand. There was a loud roar of the engine and soon they were moving, the unsteady soil under the tires making the ride more uncomfortable than on the plate. But soon, Reno couldn't feel the slight bouncing of the bike, as his world went completely dark and silent.

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**A/N: **So... four years without an update, eh? Time certainly can fly. I could make up excuses about life and other fandoms, but it wouldn't matter. I'm just incredibly sorry I ended up abandoning this fic, without never really meaning to.

Huge thanks goes to all the people who kept reading and reviewing the story, even in my absence! I can honestly say it's because of you that I picked it up again, as every review that dropped in my inbox was a guilty bang on my conscience that urged me to continue the fic. Hopefully typing down the next chapter won't take four years...


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